What Has Changed Since September 11th?

Following the September 11th attacks, George W. Bush, the then US President said: “This crusade, this war on terrorism is gonna take awhile.” Bush also said the government was determined to “rid the world of the evil-doers.” Trusting in the American troops against radical terrorism, George W. Bush indicated that the Christian world would respond to terror with terror.

No doubt a crusade did not occur but the Christian world believed the way to struggle against violence would be only violence. The outcome was untold suffering; Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were devastated, millions lost their lives and radical terror ascended. In brief, violence begot more violence.

For the last 16 years, we have insistently been dwelling on the following: The lifeblood of violence is violence. Radicalism can only be defeated by eradicating it on an intellectual basis. This can be accomplished by the alliance of genuine Muslims and Christians which intends to educate, not to generate more violence rather than a “Crusade Campaign” or a “Christian alliance.”

In a pitiful situation however, this fact that we have highlighted for long could not have been accomplished. Terror acts followed one after another; recently it has targeted Europe. For one and a half years France has been in a state of emergency while Britain has been shaken by a spate of recent terror acts. In the aftermath of the most recent attack in Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May made some statements reminiscent of the mistakes made in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Theresa May said, "The attack on London Bridge shows there is ‘far too much tolerance’ of Islamist extremism in Britain.” She also stated that the pluralist values of Britain must be advocated against everything presented by “hate speakers.”

Pluralist British values are no doubt quite important in terms of the concepts of freedom, equality, diversity and democracy they advocate; besides this culture is also significant for it also advocates art, aesthetics, quality, freedom of thought and human rights. The pluralist British values Prime Minister May speaks of must surely be protected against hate speakers and they must be advocated to the end. However, pluralist British values do not bring a solution for radicalism.

British values make up a form of culture, a lifestyle, yet it is not a religion or some kind of faith. Radicalism, on the other hand, originates from a belief. Some consider this as Islamic radicalism; however, this form of belief has nothing to do with Islam. This form of belief, which is totally divorced from the Islam depicted in the Qur'an and is based on violence, terror and shoddiness, has been artificially generated. In order to eliminate the twisted belief system which is nurtured within this structure, a righteous belief system should be presented.

What will make a radical abandon his mission of terror is when he believes in Islam itself. He can only stop his terror acts when he grasps that his religion is actually a religion of peace, and violence and hatred has no place in this religion. Therefore, the ideological counter-education that will refute their mistaken and distorted beliefs is the only solution for terrorism. As long as the West does not give support to this education and ally with peaceful, genuine Muslims in this respect and only propose their own values, this struggle will not succeed.

Radicalism is not something that can be purified by keeping one’s home and country clean. Radicalism has penetrated everywhere in the world. It has even reached Britain, an island country. This problem cannot be solved by curbing social media, having comprehensive security measures in airports or by the widest public monitoring network in the world. Precautions are surely necessary, but without taking any measures for radicalism and draining the swamp of such scourges, disinfecting the air would not deliver any results. On the very contrary, especially in the European countries in question, xenophobia and Islamophobia will spread, discrimination will emerge within societies and unhappy and furious nations will come about. As a result, the citizens of European countries will suffer the most. Meanwhile, we need to keep in mind that terror organizations will find proper ground to garner supporters in such furious societies.

Another point is the following; the West cannot popularize its values and democracy by its own methods. “Democracy and freedoms” are magical words, yet the picture they generate cannot stop the bloodshed. Democracy and freedoms are no doubt important concepts and such a beautiful conception of freedom would befit the Middle East. However, the method to accomplish it is to purify the whole of society from all superstitious belief systems. A section of Islamic society has been deprived of many values and blessings because of this superstitious conception. In this sense, it is very important to teach the genuine conception of Islam. If the Western world really wants to spread a conception of Islam that will not pave the way for increasing radicalism, they should approach these societies not by imposing democracy but by teaching the democracy depicted in the Qur'an. Then they will see a more robust conception of democracy and freedom than the one in the West prevailing in these regions.

Following the terror attacks in Britain, Theresa May said, “this ideology cannot be defeated through military intervention alone.” This statement is surely true but it is also obvious that acts such as restrictions, blacklisting and censorship would not eradicate terror. We long for and wish that the Western world swiftly understands this fact we want to convey. In the absence of an ideological struggle, it is impossible to win this war. We have no permission for terror to show its insidious face neither in our lands, nor in the Middle East, nor in Europe nor America. Our intention is to eradicate this scourge. We hope the Western world responds to this call in the near future.